i n t e r m i s s i o n .

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When he witnessed her afterglow and saw with his own two eyes how inexplicably beautiful she was in her rawest, most natural state━with an expression like dusk━he realized just how hard he had fallen for her.

                They lay together afterwards in silence save their breathing. She touched him, absentmindedly exploring his body with her fingertips.

                It was one thing for him to touch her but the first few times that she touched him, he had to shrug off the ghost shivers and consciously stop himself from flinching away from her fingers. Her gentle caresses skimmed over his most sensitive spots━his scars; the faintly pink, raised patches of skin that were once haunting memories of his past but were now not much more than mere physical deformities. Until she touched them.

                Something about her touches made them come back to life. Not necessarily in an unpleasant way, but with their reawakening came back the bitter remembrance of their origin.

                Of course, she knew.

                “I won’t hurt you.” she whispered, her lips moving against his side, “I will never hurt you.”

                Blankly staring at the far wall, he blinked away the tears that had risen in his eyes as he simultaneously hugged her closer to him.

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